'Ponytails' blazing a winning trail in BMX racing

It is a rainy Friday evening and the Sarasota BMX track is slicker than usual. So Amanda Taylor’s father lowers her tire pressure a bit.

When the storm clears and the races start, 10-year-old Amanda, better known as “Ponytails,” is the girl to beat.

She wins all three of her preliminary races with ease, leaving the other girls at least a full turn behind. She sheds her helmet to take a water break, setting free her unruly blonde hair, damp from rain and sweat.

Looking up at the gate where other riders are getting into position, she says, “Those are my friends.”

Call her ‘Ponytails’

She returns to the track for the main event and the quarter-mile of clay is all hers.

Amanda’s love for racing began with four-wheeling at age 4.

So did the nickname.

Her four-wheel races usually took place in the woods, where kids in similarly colored uniforms were hard to distinguish among the brush. To help their daughter stand out, Amanda’s parents bought two synthetic blonde ponytails and glued them to her helmet.

When a race announcer took it upon himself to call her “Ponytails,” it stuck.

Before her weekly skills workshop, Amanda squirms at a picnic table next to the track concession stand.

Fiddling with a handmade bracelet on her left arm with beads that say “B-M-X,” she looks up at mom, Sue Taylor, with bright green eyes.

“Can I go ride now?” she pleads.

“We joke that she must have been conceived on a night we both won races,” said Rob Taylor once his daughter was out of earshot.

A passion for BMX

After four-wheeling and dabbling in dirt bike riding, Amanda discovered her passion for BMX in 2011. A neighbor took her to a national race at the track off Tuttle Avenue, where she now rides almost every day.

“I want to ride that track,” Amanda told her parents after watching. And, so, she did.

Amanda’s BMX racing has taken her all over the southeast. She ranks fourth in the nation on both her 24-inch cruiser and 20-inch class bikes in the 10 Girls division. If she keeps it up, her goal of making the Olympics could be attainable in 2020.

Amanda enjoys seeing her friends at races — she has them as far as California and New Jersey — and chatting with them in between runs.

Riding is fun, but winning is more fun.

Though she rarely takes less than the top spot, especially at local races, she admits losing is hard.

“She’s her toughest critic,” her dad said.

“Especially when I crash,” Amanda added.

She does not crash often, and she has never suffered more than minor bruises or scrapes as a result of the sport.

According to her mother, taking a spill hurts Amanda’s pride more than anything.

With all the safety gear she wears to race — special shoes with cleats that lock into her pedals, a neck brace, elbow pads, gloves, pants and a matching jersey, and, of course, her ponytail helmet — her parents feel the sport is no more dangerous than football or baseball.

Per her parents’ demands, Amanda has to make good grades and help with household chores to keep racing. Then she gets to decide how often and where she wants to race.

“She’s the one doing all the work, not us, so she has that right,” her dad said.

So far, Tennessee is the farthest she has traveled, but she has big races coming up in Kentucky and Oklahoma.

Race preparation

Before getting on her bike to practice, Amanda and about 10 other children — all boys — warm up with strength training exercises under the instruction of track coach Percy Owens.

Through a set of 40 push-ups, Amanda keeps her body straight, only letting her knees touch the ground once or twice.

“The healthier you feel, whether you’re on your bike, or in school or just in life, the better you perform,” Owens tells his students.

The seven-time national BMX champion knows his stuff. He has been racing since age 10 and, at 39, he is still at it. By racing all over the world, Owens has been able to to bring the best parts of what he has seen to Sarasota BMX, where he designs the track.

As the kids round the last corner on their bikes, he reminds them to cool down before stopping.

“You don’t want that lactic acid to build up in your muscles,” he says.

A track facelift

After racing at Sarasota BMX for most of his life, Owens is about to see his home track undergo major changes, thanks in part to his own efforts.

Over the last year-and-a-half, he served on an advisory board to secure $1.7 million from the Sarasota County Commission to expand the track. Construction begins in October to renovate it into a supercross track, which he described as BMX on a larger scale. The new track will be the only Olympic-sized training facility on this side of the country, according to Owens.

Though Sarasota BMX has existed at 1590 N. Tuttle Ave. for 40 years, Owens explained not many people know about it.

“Now, everyone in town is going to see it,” he said.

The new track should serve the local BMX scene well, bringing bigger, higher-stakes races to the area.

On that wet Friday night, the races end before the sun sets. Turnout was lower than usual because of the weather.

“Ponytails” comes off the track, dodging puddles, to greet her family. The smile she wears is not cocky or smug. It is prideful.

Amanda’s dad describes her as a happy-go-lucky kid, but when she is on the track, it is clear luck has nothing to do with it.

Last modified: June 18, 2014
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